The blog of reason, weirdness, and progress. #progressive #disabilityrights.

What Makes a Nerd: Dedicated to All Nerds Everywhere, And What Is A Geek?

Recently, I had a little conversation with a friend who says he’s not a nerd. But he’s a geek. I have to admit, geekdom and nerdiness are probably not interchangeable. So let me tell you what makes a nerd and what makes a geek. Rule of thumb: geeks and nerds are not all male, so females may be included.

Geeks are smart, but nerds are ultrasmart. Geeks can solve a good average algebra problem, but a real nerd spends all his or her time solving all sorts of complex mathematical problems that even I am unable to grasp.

Geeks can dress any way they want. Nerds I’ve known have been the type who are ultrasmart gamers, the guys or gals who sit around the room playing Xbox all day, PlayStation, whatever. Lots of millennial children have this problem, thus parents should be warned. Nerds are the ones designing your kids’ favorite games. It takes brains, math, and lots of coding experience and the love of imagination to make a good videogame.

A nerd and a geek will at least have one or another level of knowledge of computers. Nerds at MIT tend to be really proud of their being a nerd. I have no problem with being called a nerd, but if I were at MIT, I would probably not be as much of a nerd as the guys who invented Facebook.

True geeks don’t just hang around and mess with machines and technology, but even an average geek can tell you, we need to have good pc maintenance skills. A geek can instal programs and maintain stuff in a pc or Mac for you Apple lovers.

Geeks are scientists most of the time I talk to them. Female geeks, too, are scientists. But I think we can learn the basics of science from a true geek. The land of geekdom is complicated, but even a doctor who spent her life as the typical female geek science whatever can tell you she had to do what’s called the scientific method. I can tel you: we all perform science tricks in our brains, even as babies, and there was a This American Life podcast called Baby Scientists with Faulty Data. We’re all guilty of having tried to manipulate our parents through doing crazy stuff, and as babies, who hasn’t cried repeatedly or made weird things happen just to watch one’s parents react poorly or with embarrassment? IF, for instance, you purposefully poured milk on your mother’s head, what would happen? Your hypothesis, some might say, would be that your mom would scream, “Oh, John, why did you do that!” Maybe you would get the classic Zinnia Wormwood reaction a la the movie Matilda, “You’re supposed to eat the spinach!” And then, Zinnia washes the baby and says, “Babies. We’re better off making tomatoes.” There is some pain in that statement, but Mrs. Wormwood was in that case manipulated by Matilda’s little baby antics. All babies are like mini scientists with faulty data, but the real science comes in when a geek pours chemicals or looks in the microscope. Geeks can make good observations and use accurate data to create something cool.

No geek or nerd would be complete without a touch of commitment and studious behavior. I’m a hard working geek in some way. But sometimes I like to say I”m a nerd. But I’m not accurate. Nerds are the dudes who like to code, write the weirdest or more innovative stuff, the ones who are changing our world. My boyfriend is a geek, but if he was a nerd, he would be spitting out garbled number combinations I would never understand. As a musician, there are geeks who say that our jargon is weird. For instance, I’m sitting with a group of music geeks and talking about what I just wrote in a score. A nerd from MIT walks in and he’s got a group of friends talking about his inventions which consist of computer code. He’d go on and on about HTML5 and even bigger programming languages. I would be sitting there saying, “Okay, the brass are to come in at the and of one in measure/bar 2.” How many of you understood what I just wrote? I know if my band director did, he’d be proud that I still do.

The whole point of this post is to kind of define what makes a nerd and a geek. I would probably say in my opinion, this is not something definite but in my humble and expert opinion, nerds tend to be more focused and do their duties and play the instrument, build the robot,whatever more diligently. Nerds aren’t candy. Geeks and nerds both have stuff to offer. As for me, I’m a geek at computers, but when it comes to music, I’m a total nerd. I understand how to manipulate a piece of music, Beethoven and his pieces for example. I can analyze and tell you what a German sixth chord does and is. Who can do that anymore!

Thank you so much for reading, and before I explode and throw my body in the dream world, I also have a good bit of law news. James Egan Holmes was formally sentenced to life without parole, 3318 years in corrections and 12 life sentences for the victims, and the last thing Judge Simor said was “Sheriff, get the defendant out of my courtroom.” The sheriff did as he was instructed, and now the question is how James Holmes will die. Or live. He may be shipped out of Colorado, forever forgotten and living out a wretched life behind bars. I’m truly pleased because the judge had a few words for Mr. Holmes: he had been a quitter. HE quit school, therapy, and life itself. And he took others with him. I promise myself and others, I do not like weapons. I will personally never shoot and kill somebody. I am not one to do things that would result in the end of a friend or boyfriend or whatever’s life. I choose Christ, and I choose life. I also have to deal with certain keys on this built in keyboard not depressing when I press them. Time to dust?